One day, a hungover Jason is approached by what he believes to be a group of fans who want him to star in an amateur film. Only when the "film" is over does he realize that it was all real. He had been abducted by real aliens, and taken to a real spaceship, a perfect copy of the show's Protector, where he'd fought a real space battle.

Finally realizing that it's not a fan film after getting sling-shotted through space, Jason ropes in the rest of the main cast, plus one Red Shirt. Instead, the actors find that they are the last hope of the Thermians, a race of naïve aliens fighting a losing war, who mistakenly believe that Galaxy Questwas actually a documentary. They now have to play their roles for real, defeating an alien warlord with nothing more than mediocre acting skills.

The story hangs lampshades on most of its tropes. The film won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, and the writers accepted the award almost in tears because they were so pleased that the Sci-Fi community "got it" — that the film was a valentine, not a sneer. And some fans consider it an honoraryStar Trek film to begin with (especially because including it in the timeline helps keep the Star Trek Movie Curse straight).

The film's story has been continued sporadically in comic books. There were plans to make a film sequel, but they were cancelled after the death of Alan Rickman, who played Sir Alexander Dane. A series in development for Amazon was paused for the same reason, but resumed in August 2017 with Paul Scheer assisting.

This film provides examples of:

Accidentally Correct Writing: In-universe example. The prop for the Protector's power core is a lumpy silver ball. As it turns out, those exist and really are how starships are powered in the movie's "reality", since the crew snaffles one from a desert planet and pops it in the engine room without a hitch.

The Thermians construct a fully-functional, spaceworthy Star Ship, complete with Warp Drive, holographic communication, and Teleportation, all based off designs they saw in "Historical Documents" (read: episodes of Galaxy Quest), not realizing that the show was fictional and that none of the technologies portrayed existed.

Jason, before he realizes that everything is real and while he's still hungover, "simplifies" the negotiations with Sarris by ordering the ship to attack him. While the Thermians freak out at the order, Jason walks off the bridge and asks to be sent home all while the Thermians point out that they would have no chance to win the fight due to being greatly underpowered and outclassed. Jason casually assures him that they'll be fine. Rest assured, the next we see Sarris, his ship is shown to have lost badly because the first officer failed to raise the deflector shield in time to counter Jason's rash order, possibly out of shock of the audacity of the whole thing.

Actor/Role Confusion: The Thermians' mistake. It didn't help that their culture had no concept of fiction.

Affectionate Parody: Notably manages to avoid the typical pitfalls of the genre and keeps up both the affection and the parody straight through the end credits.

Green blood is leaking from two of Sarris' mooks as they smash into the windscreen of his ship after being blown out of an airlock.

Alien Lunch: "Are you enjoying your Kep-mok blood ticks, Dr. Lazarus?" He picks one up with his spoon, then it jumps back down into the bowl.

Alex: [disgusted] Just like Mother used to make.

Aliens Steal Cable: Half of the movie's whole premise (the other half being And You Thought It Was a Game). The Thermians approach Jason because he's the star of a TV show they were monitoring, on the mistaken assumption that everything that happened in the show was real.

All Myths Are True: Brandon's fan-theory about the purpose of the Omega 13 turns out to be correct.

All Part of the Show: At the end, when the actors return to the convention in a shuttle that crashes into the convention hall, and have to battle Sarris in front of the assembled fans, and the fans look very grateful for the big show put on for them.

Anal Probing: The crew believes this to be happening to them after their arrival at the star port, when three of the Thermians approach them in their true forms with probing tools in their tentacle hands. Gwen seems to want to cover all bases, as it were, since she reacts by taking a firm grip of her breasts.

Are We There Yet?: In a variation, this is Dane's response to someone else being annoying.

Artistic License – Biology: Beryllium is extremely toxic and definitely not something you'd want to be rolling around with your bare hands while you breath in the resultant dust.

Artistic License – Chemistry: The beryllium sphere. Doubles as a Mythology Gag—the Enterprise uses "dilithium crystals," which were originally called "lithium crystals" until someone remembered that lithium is a real element.

Brandon the mega nerd is called for help by Jason, who is on the real ship and needs his information right now to save the day. This involves sending an emergency message to his fellow mega nerds and making a runway for landing.

At the end of the film, Laliari, one of the Thermians, joins the cast of the show for the rebooted version; like the other members of her race, she loved the show and now gets to be a part of it.

Tommy: Go for the eyes, like in episode 22! Jason: It doesn't have any eyes, Tommy! Tommy: Well, go for the mouth, then; the throat, its vulnerable spots! Jason: It's a rock! It doesn't have any vulnerable spots!

Bad News in a Good Way: "Heeey, guys.... Listen, they're telling me the, uhh, the generators can't take it. Ship's breaking up and all that. Just FYI."

Bamboo Technology: Parodied. ("I know! You can make a weapon! Look around you, can you construct some sort of rudimentary lathe?" "A lathe??! Get off the line, Guy!") From the original Star Trek episode "Arena", in which Kirk made a cannon out of bamboo and gunpowder out of coal and sulfur and whatnot that were lying around the arena.

Bathroom Stall of Overheard Insults: Jason overhears himself badmouthed as a delusional hack, which shocks and demoralizes him so badly that he lashes out at his fans and gets very drunk. note This was based on a real life incident that happened to William Shatner, overhearing in a bathroom what everyone else (including his castmates) thought about him. Although it's not known if he got drunk afterwards.

Be Careful What You Wish For: Guy starts his appearance off as an excited fan greeting the main cast of Galaxy Quest as old friends telling them about the bit part he had in one episode as a Redshirt (since his part was so small and it's been 20 years, no one remembers him). From then on, he becomes the eager Tag Along Kid and volunteers himself to go with the cast to what they thought was a job. When they realize that it's all real, Guy spends the rest of the movie freaking out that he's going to die like a real Redshirt.

Becoming the Mask: Over the course of their adventure, the actors become real heroes. Lampshaded by Gwen: "Gosh, I'm doing it. I'm repeating the darn computer."

Bellisario's Maxim: Used in-universe. At the convention when Brandon confronts Jason with an inconsistency in the ship's design, Jason cuts him off by saying it's just a show, although in that scene it's Jason who really should relax.

Bizarre Alien Biology: Alexander's room on the Protector contains a toilet designed for his character's biology: it looks like a confusing mess of tubes. The toilet also involves some spikes. The bed consists mostly of spikes that rise out of a block or hard, smooth material. Since bathrooms are one of the things the Show Within a Show never went into, the plumbing is probably standard for Thermians.

Watch Gwen's mouth when she sees the chompers and exclaims "Well screw that!" Clearly the filmmakers had a different second word in mind, which got altered after filming.

When Tommy tells Jason "You are so full of 'it', man!"

To get a lower rating, the filmmakers cut a minor scene which explains Fred and Guy's behavior throughout the movie. It works better for Fred, as his calm demeanor (which could also be a take on DeForest Kelley's easygoing nature) is a better lampshade for Scotty's frantic behavior.

Break the Cutie: Sarris forces Jason to do this to Mathesar by revealing that Galaxy Quest is fiction. After they rally and defeat Sarris, Mathesar recovers and comes to the conclusion that the "we're just actors" revelation was a cunning deception practiced by Jason on Sarris. This is also part of the backstory; the Thermians were about as peaceful a people as you could imagine, not even aware of the concept of intentionally speaking falsehood — and then they met Sarris.

Jason's inability to properly signal to Gwen that he needs her to turn off the communication with Sarris. He later successfully fakes picking a fight with Alexander by calling out the actor himself, rather than behaving like they're their characters on the show.

Buffy Speak: Happens during the first fight against Sarris when Guy talks about "the red thingy heading toward the green thingy."

Chekhov's Boomerang: The Thermian appearance generators, first used as a joke to show how the gawky humanoid Thermians are actually Starfish Aliens. The same device fails during Mathasar's torture. Finally used by Sarris to disguise himself as Fred in the final showdown.

The Omega-13, a mysterious alien device that nobody is entirely sure what it does. Jason ends up having to use it, hoping that Brandon's theory is correct and it will save the day, rather than the other common theory that it will destroy the entire universe.

The communicators that Brandon and Jason switch early on.

The Tothian minefield helps the crew to escape Sarris. Later it comes in handy again in the final showdown.

Chekhov's Skill: Midway through the film, Jason decides to practice his forward-roll maneuver (just like he did on the show) when the crew first lands on the rock planet. It comes in handy at the end, when he rolls out of the way to shoot Sarris.

Chekhov's Time Travel: The time-machine device that allows the user to go back 13 seconds into the past, just enough time to correct a mistake. It's mentioned early in the film but then dismissed and not used until the end.

Classically Trained Extra: Alexander Dane. He's not quite an "extra", but he still held a very low opinion of his role. The credits list him as "Sir Alexander Dane", which makes his appearances at Department Store grand openings all the more demeaning. (He once played Richard III, you know. There were five curtain calls.) Alexander himself is played by Alan Rickman, a former Shakespearean actor.

Cliffhanger: The opening Two-Part Episode ends with Cmdr. Quincy Taggart ordering the activation of the Omega-13 device. Then the scene fades to white. Unfortunately, we never get to see the second part of the episode (the nerds aren't sure either, implying the show was Cut Short).

Conveniently Close Planet: The NSEA Protector is badly damaged, but no worries — there's a conveniently close planet. Considering it's a Star Trek parody, definitely intentional.

Fred Kwan: Hey, Commander. Listen, we found some beryllium on a nearby planet, and we might be able to get there if we reconfigure the solar matrix in parallel for endothermic propulsion. What'd'ya think?

Conveniently Empty Building: The parking lot at the end was empty because otherwise a lot of people would be squished by the falling space ship.

Cool Starship: The Protector, obviously. Its design is also a reference to the Enterprise: instead of a disk-like primary hull and a cylindrical secondary hull, it has a cylindrical primary hull and a disk-like design for its secondary hull(s).

Cowardly Lion: The main cast, with the exception of Jason. Everyone complains that they're simply actors and not up to the job, but manage to brave on anyway.

Creator Backlash: In-universe, the entire cast except Nesmith feel this way about their roles and the fame this has brought them. The movie explores the ways in which this affects their dispositions toward life.

Sir Alexander Dane spends most of his time complaining, about the degeneration of his career from classically trained Shakespearean actor to being most famous for his role as the token alien in a cheesy space opera. But when an alien trooper shoots his biggest fan, the character dies in his arms while saying that he always thought of Dane's character as a father figure. Dane then utters the alien vow his character is known for (which he had utterly hated up to this point), swearing vengeance, and lunges out of cover. The alien trooper takes aim at him but he charges, bare-handed. The alien's gun fails just in time for Dane to leap on top of him and start beating him to death bare-handed — which in turn gives the rest of the Thermians the courage to join in the fight.

Then there's Jason Nesmith, the star of said cheesy space opera. When the film begins, he's an drunken egotistical Jerkass who is seen by everyone else as a Nice Character, Mean Actor. But when the gravity of the situation finally dawns on him, Nesmith ascends to become a Guile Hero, first by improvising an escape plan and rallying his colleagues into defeating an army of invaders, then navigating a Death Course through the bowels of the ship (that he was completely unfamiliar with), and culminating with calling the Big Bad's bluff in the face of death and saving the day.

Cuteness Overload: Gwen experiences this when seeing the injured miner. The crew has to hold her back from running towards the poor creature.

Cut Short: In-Universe example. The final episode of Galaxy Quest set up for the upcoming season (Taggart stating when ambushed that they have to activate the Omega 13), but that was the last episode.

Cyclops: Downplayed. When Laredo learns to fly properly by watching old episodes of Galaxy Quest, one Monster of the Week on the screen is a giant one-eyed tentacle monster in outer space.

Deadly Dodging: During the climatic confrontation, the Protector drags magnetic mines and, in the last possible moment, dodges Sarris' onrushing flagship which in turn crashes right into the heap of mines and explodes.

Death Course: Again, lampshaded and parodied. Jason and Gwen have to navigate a death course complete with jets of fire, giant crushers, and tiny air vents, despite the fact that there is no rational reason for any of those things to be there. Why are they there? Because they were on the original TV show, so the Thermians have replicated them.

Dude, Where's My Respect?: The cast of Galaxy Questtends to suffer from this. For example, Alexander Dane, who was once a respected Shakespearian actor, now reduced to his initially hated television role, while Gwen DeMarco is a good enough actress like anyone else, but is viewed as a Ms. Fanservice by the public to her dismay nonetheless.

Emergency Refuelling: When the Beryllium Sphere gets broken, the crew has to go down to a planet to find a new Beryllium Sphere. Just one problem, the planet is populated with cute looking but carnivorous creatures.

Endless Corridor: Twice inside the spaceship. First when the bridge crew visits the seemingly endless living quarters and again when Jason and Gwen head down an extremely long stretch of corridor.

Fan Disillusionment: Flirted with, but ultimately averted for Brandon. Despite his poor treatment from Jason at the convention, he remains a loyal fan in the end. Good thing for the crew of the Protector, too.

Fantastic Ship Prefix: The NSEA before the Protector's name apparently stands for National Space Exploration Agency. The registry starts with "NTE". It's never mentioned what this means in the movie, but behind the scenes it stands for "Not The Enterprise".

Gwen Demarco is definitely Counselor Troi and Commander Uhura. Other female leads had more active roles and this was before Linda Park. The bit about the interview references a real interview with Jeri Ryan, the actress playing Seven of Nine.

Fred Kwan was easily the most laid back of the group and seemed to just go with everything. Much like James Doohan who not only enjoyed being recognized as Scotty, but definitely enjoyed meeting fans and going to conventions. His only real problem with Star Trek was William Shatner.

The big one: The Captain is all Kirk and Jason Nesmith is all Shatner. The relationship between Nesmith and the rest of the crew and the arc it follows in this series mirrors Shatner's relationship with the original series actors and his eventual reconciliation with them. William Shatner claimed in an interview that he had no idea who Tim Allen's character was supposed to be a parody of.

A Form You Are Comfortable With: The Thermians in their natural form are pink, squid-like entities. However, with "appearance generator" technology, they are able to change their appearance to appear less foreign to the humans.

Freak Out!: Alexander's panic attack at every convention. You can set your watch by it.

Funny Background Event: Fred gives an update to the bridge crew during a particularly harrowing chase scene. Despite his typical laconic, mildly stoned demeanour, there are explosions going off in the background as Thermian crew members are being hurled around like dolls.

Jason: Hey Sarris, how're you doing? Sarris: [shows the head of his lieutenant mounted on a stick] Better than my lieutenant!

Game Face: Played for laughs, where the crew encounters some weird baby-looking aliens on a desert planet. One of the cute aliens gets hurt, and the others crowd around it as if to help it get water... only to reveal demonic faces with terrifyingly sharp teeth and devour the thing alive.

Genre Blindness: Guy is the only one who has any idea what to expect in this kind of story.

Jason mistakes the Thermians as fans, even after seeing how well-designed their "set" is and how impressive the enemy race's makeup is. He seemingly forgets his own show's shoddy production values, and clearly doesn't grasp that Sarris' people are too monstrous for a TV show.

Sarris defeated the Thermians soundly in the backstory because of it, which he uses to hurt them again in the Break the Cutie moment.

By contrast Sarris' own defeats tend to come because he has zero chance of knowing something (Omega-13, or that the Thermians had based their beliefs on another culture's entertainment), or because he's an actual military leader, not merely pretending (and thus didn't expect a deft maneuver that'd be suicide for any but the best pilots, from a pilot who nearly crashed the ship as they disembarked. Plus said maneuver was Crazy Enough to Work but would never be tried in real life; the actors did it because that would be the TV method of doing it). Sarris does succumb to it himself after finding out the cast's true nature, leading him to toy with his victims rather than just kill them outright. He also learns from his mistakes, and deliberately suckerpunches the crew later on.

Get a Room!: Guy says this to Laliari and Fred who start making out in the transport room. They pay no attention. It quickly turns Squick for Guy.

Heroic Sacrifice: Guy suggests doing this to deal with some of Sarris's mooks, reasoning that if he's going to die anyway it might as well be a worthwhile death. Fred talks him out of it.

Hologram Projection Imperfection: Right before the team is beamed on board, Laliari is revealed to be a holographic image when her projection goes through some flickering.

Hyperspeed Escape: When Jason realizes what big trouble they've really gotten themselves into, he tells Laredo to press the "Turbo" button and keep it held down. Since the Turbo feature was only designed for short bursts of speed, Hilarity Ensues.

I Knew It!: In-universe, this is Brandon's reaction when Jason tells him it's all real.

I Know Mortal Kombat: Tommy Webber at the helm and Fred Kwan on the Digital Conveyor. They are both justified because the controls were designed by the Thermians replicating them from the "Historical Documents".

In Weber's case, he had worked out in his head what the controls did and applied that consistently throughout the original television show. Also a Shout-Out to Wil Wheaton, who played Wesley Crusher, as he did the same thing on the set of Next Generation.

Inverted with digital conveyor. Teb's line saying the conveyor is more "art than science" implies that Fred didn't try to put any consistency in his movements.

Immediate Self-Contradiction: Brandon's valiant effort to explain that he understands the difference between reality and fiction does an immediate 180 the moment Jason manages to tell him why he's calling.

Brandon: I want you to know that I'm not a complete brain case, okay? I understand completely that it's just a TV show. I know there's no beryllium sphere, no digital conveyor, no ship... Jason: Stop for a second, stop. It's all real. Brandon: Oh my God, I knew it. I knew it! I knew it!

Interspecies Romance: Fred and Laliari, who decides to go to Earth with her new hubby and star in the reboot under the name "Jane Doe".

Inventional Wisdom: The Chompers. Gwen lampshades how ridiculous it is that there is a Death Course in the middle of the ship.

Ironic Echo: In the opening scene of the lost episode 92, a computer voice announces "Systems register functional". But the Protector was Lured into a Trap. This scene is echoed at the end, when a similar situation occurs after Sarris' ship explodes. The computer voice mentions again "Systems register functional". And again a trap is laid in the form of Sarris disguised as Fred.

Irony: Guy spends the whole movie complaining about being a Red Shirt. When Sarris sneaks on board the bridge of the ship and starts shooting everyone, Guy is the only person he doesn't hit.

Just in Time: Deconstructed. On the show, bombs only ever stopped when the timer was at 1, so the self-destruct device on the new ship is designed to only stop with one second left no matter when the emergency stop button is pressed.

Fred's reaction to the ship suffering catastrophic damage, flying at unsafe speeds, and his engineering crew hanging from the scaffolding amid explosions? He kind of shrugs, and gives a general update that everything's really bad. "Just FYI."

Mandatory Line: It's implied that this is all Tawny Madison did on the show, besides squeeze into a tight costume and be the only girl.

Guy's first name is a generic term for a male — which was his role in the show.

Jason Nesmith shares a last name with Mike Nesmith of The Monkees. Despite being a major talent in his own right (he won the first Grammy for a music video, has written famous songs and produced popular movies), he's still most recognized for being in a boy band, lip synching, and not playing his own instruments.

Men Act, Women Are: Parodied and exaggerated by Gwen. In the show, her character's only job on the ship is to make redundant statements to the computer. The Thermians designed the computer specifically to interface with Gwen, programmed with her emotions and tonal ranges in mind, so this trope is not the case on the real ship. It only gives Jason a Mathematician's Answer, but tells Gwen exactly what she wants to know.

No Biochemical Barriers: We see species from at least four planets (humans, the Thermians, Sarris's people and the inhabitants of the mining planet) all coexisting comfortably in each other's environments (no issues with temperature, radiation level, atmosphere composition, atmospheric pressure, gravity...) Although this is the only sense in which anybody can 'coexist comfortably' in the same room as Sarris.

Jason to some fans at the convention: "I think we all remember what happened to that beast on Enok VII, right?"

Gwen's comment to Jason "It was cute when I didn't know you" suggests they had an affair but that's all we ever learn of it.

No OSHA Compliance: The Protector's duct system is a Death Course, featuring a giant rotating fan underneath a narrow, unsecured catwalk and the Chompers. Lampshaded, to the point where Gwen wants to kill the writers.

No Time to Explain: Alex tells Quellek that he has no time to explain what happened and is gonna fill him in on their way.

Overly Long Gag: As Tommy tries to fly the ship out of the dock, he starts listing to the left and starts scraping the side of the dock. A grinding, screeching noise is heard as he inches along, the entire crew cringing and giving awkward looks to the Thermians, who keep their innocent grins on as if nothing is wrong.

The Plan: Jason is the plan maker. First he who comes up with a plan how to obtain a beryllium sphere from the mining site. Back on the ship he lays out a plan how to overcome Sarris' forces. Then he has a plan on how to destroy Sarris' ship: by dragging space mines.

Post-Historical Trauma: When Jason tells Mathesar that they're actors while he's on the torture table, Mathesar is distraught. Their culture doesn't understand acting or fiction and are only able to equate it to lying (which itself was a concept foreign to their culture before Sarris came along). However, after the crew is successful, Mathesar is convinced they really are the crew, and that Jason was lying to Sarris. Some fan theories say that Mathesar knew the truth and was lying for the benefit of his crew.

P.O.V. Cam: The upwards tracking shot from Jason's view point as he gets up from under the table at his house.

The Power of Acting: Although they end up using their character's skills for real, their acting does come into play a few times. For example, Jason and Alex are able to overpower the guards by reenacting one of their scenes: "You're starting to act like you did in episode 17, you scene-stealing hack."

The Power of Friendship: Called upon when Brandon teams up with his three friends to lead Jason and Gwen through the duct system of the Protector.

The Power of Love: Fred refuses to use the digital conveyor on Jason ... until Laliari enters the room. Cue confidence boost and Big Damn Rescue.

Ramming Always Works: Reconstructed. Taggart sends the Protector flying at full speed toward Sarris, who mocks him by pointing out that with their "photon armor" almost entirely stripped away, it would be his own ship that survives a collision. Then Taggart reveals his real tactic: his ship is dragging homing mines.

Facial shots of all crew members reacting to the squeaking noise the ship makes when scratching along the dock's wall.

Sarris gets one when he finally gets to see the "historical documents." Given the makeup, the actor's amazing at it, emoting from curiosity, to disbelief, to hilarious shock. The exultant sentence that follows just sells the whole thing:

Sarris: You have all done far greater damage than I ever could have. Bravo...bravo!

Reality Is Unrealistic: Guy offers to sign autographs alongside the main cast, and while some may question how in the world some background Red Shirt could possibly have people who would even know who he is have never been to a Star Trek convention where, indeed, anonymous Red Shirtshave been autographers and celebrated. Just ask actors like Vince Deadrick and Mal Friedman.

Reset Button: The Omega 13 is a very limited Reset Button as it could turn time back only thirteen seconds. Just barely enough time to fix a major mistake. Fortunately, it wasn't a plot Reset Button. The movie was way too good to try that.

Rewatch Bonus: If you listen to the background in the scene after Jason orders the Thermians to fire on Sarris' ship (when he still believes he's working with a bunch of cosplayers), you can hear thundering weapons fire in the background as the Protector launches a barrage at Sarris' ship.

Right Behind Me: The Captain insults Sarris after mistakenly thinking the viewscreen connection was turned off.

Ripple Effect-Proof Memory: After Jason activates the Omega 13 device, time turns back 13 seconds into the past. Jason alone remains aware of the fact that the person who is about to enter the bridge is not really Fred Kwan but actually Sarris in disguise.

Rock Monster: Jason Nesmith has to fight a rock monster. It's then teleported up to the ship and begins destroying Sarris's army.

Rule of Cool: Since the original show was cancelled before they showed the Omega 13 in action, Brandon and his fellow hardcore fans have a few different theories as to what the Omega 13 does — some of which are of mere academic interest, and one of which is scarily awesome. Guess which one turns out to be right?

Gwen had one job on the show. Do not make light of it. You shouldn't ever make light of it. Never try to cut an actor's lines.

Also seen with the hardcore Galaxy Quest fans and exemplified with the Thermians — who don't understand the concept of not taking something seriously — and have based their entire civilisation on the Show Within a Show.

Alexander's complaints that "...they're not getting me to say that stupid line." are similar to Alec Guinness' complaints in the original Star Wars trilogy. Some accounts mention that it was his idea to kill off Obi-Wan Kenobi so he wouldn't have to say any more of "those damned stupid lines."

The button that Gwen and Jason must press to deactivate the ship's self-destruct sequence rises out of the console on a metal cylinder reminiscent of those that Ripley uses in her attempt to abort the Nostromo's self-destruct sequence in Alien. Also, doubles as an Actor Allusion, since Sigourney Weaver starred in that film.

The trope is spoken aloud to Sir Alexander Dane to convince him not to flee from a sci-fi convention. He is not happy about it... principally because it works.

The host at the last day of the convention. A spaceship crashes through the convention center and stops mid-stage, there's confusion everywhere... then one of the characters steps out, and the host announces him as if this was All Part of the Show.

Tommy Weber's controls are based on how he operated them on the show. Fortunately, he had taken the time as a kid to figure out consistent hand gestures. Since Tommy is probably at least partially based on Wil Wheaton, this is a straight homage. Wheaton once remarked on how pleased he was that "his" station in the Star Trek Experience worked just like it did in the series, which was made possible because he had worked out his station's interface with Michael Okuda.

The character of "Guy Fleegman" was an intentional homage to a very busy Next Generation actor, Guy Vardaman, who not only played several no-name extras in the series, but also served as a stunt/stand-in double for Brent Spiner (Data) and Wil Wheaton (Wesley). His reaction to the homage: "I just about fell out of the chair!" having forgotten being told that the character would appear in a film someday.

First advertised using a totally in-character fake fansite. (Which now doubles as a time capsule of everything that was awful about fansites, and web design in general, during The '90s.)

The two boys who mock Taggert and the show are known as "Mundanes" in the convention circuit - people who buy tickets to be amused by the slavish worship of whatever IP the convention is honoring. The opposite, of course, are the FIAWOL'snote Fandom Is A Way of Life attending.

The bad guy calls the captain, demanding surrender and a powerful device the ship carries. The captain agrees, cuts the comm and plots to ambush the enemy with a surprise attack. Only in Star Trek II Wrath Of Khan, Uhura knew where the "hold" button was.

Show Within a Show: The eponymous Galaxy Quest is the movie's version of the Star Trek franchise.

Sick and Wrong: Guy's reaction to Fred and Laliari (who's partially reverted from pretty humanoid to tentacle creature) making out: "That's just not right!"

Slasher Smile: Fred does this when he shoots up the the crew of the Protector and is revealed to be Sarris in disguise.

Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom: There's a corridor of them leading to the room containing the button that deactivates the ship's self-destruct, because that's how it was in an episode of the show. Gwen has some choice things to say about the writer who came up with that idea.

Fred is often seen with snack food, even in serious situations. He was originally intended to be a stoner, but those references were taken out to make the movie PG, leaving a habit for snacking that's still pretty funny. They may never directly mention any pot use, but damn near everything about Fred's personality still implies it.

The cheapo aesthetic of the "real-life" Galaxy Quest show. It's very fun to watch the special features, in which the filmmakers discuss the cutting-edge special effects technology used to film the movie, and then show how they made the in-universe television show look cheaply-made on purpose — complete with a red cyclorama and papier-mache rocks. Director Dean Parisot explains that he put sand on the dolly tracks to make the camerawork look rough.

The Thermians, in their quest to make their technology as true to the show as possible, made the ion nebulizer's shots look unconvincing, right down to Sarris being 'vaporized' by vanishing with a puff of smoke and a small pyrotechnic charge.

The film's official website was deliberately made to look like a poorly coded eyesore of a fansite.

In the opening scene, whilst the ship is under attack and the core is about to explode, the crew still finds time to debate over their best course of action with no interruption by further bombardment or alarm signals. Given that this was a clip from the show, it make sense.

Taught by Television: Brandon and his friends know virtually everything about the Protector by dint of obsessively watching the show and its supporting materials. Said knowledge turns out to be vital aid in the film's penultimate act.

Though it works perfectly at the very end, when Jason deals the death blow to Sarris (with the gun that this time, he didn't drop).

Unobtainium: The Protector runs on beryllium, a natural element - but extremely rare in pure, crystalline form. When the only beryllium sphere on board breaks under stress, the crew sets out to obtain a replacement sphere from a nearby planet. They eventually succeed but the distraction caused by this side quest enables the Big Bad to seize their ship.

Unpredictable Results: Nobody knows what the Omega 13 does (the show got canceled on a Cliffhanger), though the die-hard fans have some theories. One of them turned out to be right. The Thermians based all the technology on what they saw on the show, so Brandon being right was more him having the same conclusion that the Thermians did as they knew no more than what was presented on the show.

The Unsmile: The Thermians understand that an Earth being turns the edges of its oral orifice upward in order to show goodwill. They distort their oral orifices in accordance with this custom.

Unspoken Plan Guarantee: We are not told what Jason means when ordering Laredo to move the Protector closer to the Space Mines. And naturally, the plan of using them to destroy Sarris' ship works out perfectly.

Viewer-Friendly Interface: Parodied with Guy notifying the crew about the red thingy coming towards the green thingy. A look on the display confirms the simplicity of the Protector's tactical visualization techniques.

Villain Ball: Sarris mostly avoids this, except when he learns that the crew are just actors. In a fit of amusement, he decides to kill everyone in a death trap instead of killing them outright, like a villain on the TV show. It's a mistake he quickly regrets.

Wasn't That Fun?: The friendly aliens' method of transporting the protagonists to their ship can be described roughly as "fly them into orbit (and through a Swirly Energy Thingy) at high speed with nothing but a huge blob of jello to shield them". Everyone looks thoroughly traumatized and nauseated by this experience, except for the engineer... who just remarks "That was a hell of a thing."

We Have Reserves: During his Villainous Breakdown, Sarris shows no regard for his underlings and orders them to go out and find the Protector crew although the self-destruction countdown nears zero and evacuating his men would be the most logical option.

The last time Alexander Dane uses his famous line, with complete sincerity, to a dying Quellick: "By Grabthar's hammer... by the suns of Warvan... you shall be...avenged''."

What an Idiot: In-Universe, Sarris realizes that the Thermians have staked all their hopes on people who appeared in a television show. He is so delighted by this that he compliments the Earthlings for an accidental cruelty that he can't hope to match.

Guy's fear that his role as a Red Shirt in the show will be reflected by his death in real life. In his attempts to survive, he ends up being indecisive since he sees his eventual death in whatever direction he takes. Would he stay on the Protector as The Team goes planet-bound and gets killed by something lurking inside the ship? Or would he go with The Team and be the one to be killed by a monster five minutes after they land on the planet?

For the guys sans Fred, when Jason gets left behind on the planet with a rock monster coming after him, and the crew, on board the orbiting ship, tries to help him by giving him advice via communicator. Hmm, could have sworn those suggestions worked in the shows....

Tommy: Go for the mouth or the throat, its vulnerable spots! Jason: It's a rock. It doesn't have any vulnerable spots! Guy: I know! You construct a weapon. Look around you. Can you form some sort of rudimentary lathe? Jason: A lathe? Get off the line, Guy! Alexander, you're my adviser. Advise me! Alexander: Well, you're just gonna have to figure out what it wants. What is its motivation? Jason: It's a rock monster! It doesn't have motivation! Alexander: See, that's your problem, Jason. You were never serious about the craft.

You Can Always Tell a Liar: During the final confrontation between The Protector and Sarris' ship, Jason notes that he can tell Sarris' cool demeanor to be a put-on because he is sweating.

Sarris: If you are counting on me to blink, then you are making a deadly mistake.

Jason: It doesn't take a great actor to recognize a bad one. You're sweating!

You, Get Me Coffee: Laredo is told to practice flying instead of joining the other characters in saving the ship. Then his improved flying skills prove crucial to their defeating the enemy ship.

You Have Failed Me: Sarris was not amused with his former lieutenant who didn't raise the shields fast enough and had him decapitated.

You Have to Believe Me: Jason Nesmith tries to tell his co-stars that the odd-looking fans at the convention were really aliens: "They were termites... or dalmatians!" They don't believe him at first, even when a couple of the Thermians (shapeshifted into humans) arrive.

Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Upon discovering the truth about how the heroes are just a bunch of actors, Sarris congratulates them by saying that they have done far more damage to the Thermians than he could ever do.

Your Favorite: Played for laughs. The Thermians provide the favorite food of the characters, which is why Sir Alexander Dane gets stuck with blood ticks.

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